


Nobody prays for the heartless.

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 09:37:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21542185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Karkat wastes his days away working at a near ancient library, Dave is an aspiring musician that signs out some odd books, but at least he’s really pretty.
Relationships: Karkat Vantas/Dave Strider
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Nobody prays for the heartless.

“Karkat your late again,” The old woman’s voice cut through the young boys haze as he walked into the desolate library. Dusty and cold, countless rows of books daunting in their irrelevance. The woman stood behind the wooden desk, her reading glasses sitting low on her crooked nose. Her thin lips carved into a permanent frown forcing deep wrinkles into her rosy cheeks. 

Karkat sighed heavily, the young boy tossing his bag behind the counter. “Sorry Mam’, Busses were running late.” He mumbled a half hearted apology out, his voice raspy from the cigarette he had just finished smoking. He slid behind the desk, pulling the sleeves of his sweater over his hands as he settled into the office chair. There he would remain for his eight hour shift until the early evening. 

The woman rolled her eyes as she walked towards the large antique doors. “ Excuses, have you ever thought of doing something with your life, like going to school or getting a damn car?” She spat at him, wrapping her comically large scarf around her rooster like neck. 

“No mam, if I did you would be down your only other employee,” He replied with as much snark as he could muster as his boss left the library. The door swung open, a cold burst of winter air following and chilling Karkat to the bone yet again. He shivered and scowled, hunkering further down in the chair and curling in on himself much like a cat. 

Days at the library were entirely uneventful, the occasional elderly browsing the shops, a school field trip, or young children with their tormented parents. Rarely did Karkat ever sign out a book, rather his days were filled of browsing reddit, or stalking old high school classmates on social media. At the ripe age of twenty-six Karkat hadn’t accomplished anything in his life, he had barely graduated high school before immediately throwing himself into work. When not at work he commonly watched mind melting tv and movies until he had to work again, he had dubbed himself the worlds least interesting person, even his few friends couldn’t be bothered to hang out with him at this point,

It’s not that Karkat couldn’t do anything, he simply didn’t want to. He didn’t want to date anyone, not after his last disaster of a boyfriend. He didn’t want to hang out with friends, they drank to often and he was quite the lightweight and prone to embarrass himself. He certainly didn’t want to go to school for a useless degree either. Karkat was entirely comfortable with wasting away, but that might have just been the depression. 

“Meredith, your copy of ‘ A wrinkle in time’ is still overdue, I cant sign this out to you until you bring it back,” Karkat explained to the elderly woman peeking out at him from the front of the desk as she shakily pushed a book towards him. 

The woman frowned. “Oh, I forgot again, silly me, would you do me a favour darling, just once, I can’t go home and come back in time,” She asked in her frail voice, a small smile gracing her lips.

Karkat stared at her in the eye, unwavering. A sigh escaped him as he grasped the book from her hands and rang it through, “Just this once,” He smiled softly at her as he placed it back in her shaky hands. “Have a pleasant evening Mrs.” 

The woman left the library with a happy hobble, clutching the book to her heavily bundled chest. The sight warmed Karkats heart, he had a soft spot for nice old people. He sat back down in his chair, prepared for another two hours of zero interaction.

Slowly his emerald green eyes glazed over, scrolling through a lengthy blog post about the dangers of dieting, his fingers autonomously scrolling on the mouse. “Hmm” He mumbled to himself feigning interest. Slowly another house had past, another blog discovered. Quickly a chill ran through the boys body as the chilled air was let in by another patron, though as Karkat looked up he realized this was not a person he recognized as a regular. 

The man strode in with confidence, a light dusting of snow on his bomber jacket that was much more suited for fall than winter. He was gorgeous to put it simply. The strangers dark skin glistened under the library’s warm lighting, in beautiful contrast to his bleached white hair. He had large headphones sitting atop his head, and perhaps the strangest attribute about him, aviator sunglasses that he seemingly had no plan in taking off. 

Karkat was star struck, his mouth hanging open lightly in amazement that someone so beautiful could be in this library right now with him, let alone be in this shit hick town he resided in. The boy walked past him without a glance, or so Karkat assumed, and straight into the back of the library where Karkat could no longer gaze at him. His heart dropped in his chest, partially at the fact he could no longer see this model, and partially at the prospect of having to directly interact with him.

He sat behind the desk twiddling his thumbs nervously for nearly fifteen minutes. Slowly he saw the blonde boy making his way towards him through the shelves, slowly moving his headphones off and down to hang around his neck. Karkat gulped.

“Hey, weird fucking question.” His voice was sharp, striking directly into Karkats frozen little heart. “...but do you guys carry a copy of the communist manifesto?” With the end of the question came a record scratch. It was so absurd Karkat felt a laugh bubbling deep within his chest before spilling out. 

“W-What?” He laughed raspily, clutching his stomach. Staring up at the boy waiting for him to laugh as well, though his face stayed unmoving, entirely stoic. “O-oh.. your serious,” Karkats laughter slowly died. He coughed awkwardly, “I can check..” He wheeled himself towards the computer. 

“Thanks,” Was the only reply that came from the other.  Karkat scrolled for a minute before nodding. “Yeah we have a couple copies, way in the back...I’ll show you,” He mumbled nervously, pushing himself out of the chair onto his shaky legs. He stepped out from behind the counter and realized how tall the other man was, towering over him, nearly threateningly. “F-follow me.” Karkat pointed his chin towards the back of the building as he walked. 

Deep in the back near the reference books were dusty copies of the book. He gestured towards them. “Uh there you go, hope this is what you were looking for.” The boy nodded at him before crouching down and scanning the shelf. Karkat side stepped past him and waddled back to the desk. He couldn’t have been there for long before the boy made his way back towards him.

“Find what you wanted?” He asked timidly, taking the book from the others hands. 

“Yeah.”

Karkat nodded curtly. “G-good, library card?” The card was slid to him across the desk. Karkat found out the boys name, Dave Strider. HE handed back the book and card. “Uh thanks for dropping by...Have fun starting a revolution.” 

Taking the book back and sliding it along with his card into his side bag, Dave nodded. “I will.” He pulled his headphones back on and slipped out silently, leaving nothing but a trail of snow behind him.

“Oh Jesus fuck,” Karkat exasperated, falling into his chair and clutching his sweater over his heart. “I hope I never see him again, I don’t think I could handle it.” He mumbled. As his heart slowly stopped rapidly beating, Karkat made himself comfy at the desk yet again and settled in for the rest of the night. 


End file.
